Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
Telemedicine odyssey customised telemedicine solution for rural and remote areas in India.
There is a significant potential for delivering medical services in rural areas of India using Telemedicine methods. However, there is a continuous emphasis on patient privacy, which is usually not a concern in traditional consultation. We at Centre for Development of Advance Computing, Mohali Punjab have developed a customized Telemedicine solution, which overcomes the barrier--technological as well as professional, legal and financial--to Telemedicine. ⋯ Currently, our major project is to deploy Telemedicine sites at various locations in the hilly and remote state of Himachal Pradesh. During these developments, we have faced unavoidable hurdles and tried to overcome them with team effort, perseverance and never give up attitude. This paper will shed light on our journey from scratch to what we have achieved till date.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
Virtual environment-based training simulator for endoscopic third ventriculostomy.
A virtual environment-based endoscopic third ventriculostomy simulator is being developed for training neurosurgeons as a standardized method for evaluating competency. Magnetic resonance (MR) images of a patient's brain are used to construct the geometry model, realistic behavior in the surgical area is simulated by using physical modeling and surgical instrument handling is replicate by a haptic interface. The completion of the proposed virtual training simulator will help the surgeon to practice the techniques repeatedly and effectively, serving as a powerful educational tool.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
The influence of brace on quality of life of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis.
Traditionally, the effectiveness of brace treatment on adolescents with IS is based on curve magnitude and to some extent on vertebral rotation and rib hump. QoL has been introduced in the recent years in order to evaluate the effectiveness of brace treatment. The aim of the study is to determine the influence of brace on quality of life (QoL) of adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis (IS). ⋯ The ATI correlated significantly with social functioning (thoracolumbar ATI, p<0.038; lumbar ATI, p<0.035). There were no significant correlations between either Cobb angle or ATI with BrQ overall scores. Cobb angle and ATI significantly influenced school activity and social functioning respectively, but not general health perception, physical functioning, emotional functioning, vitality, bodily pain and self-esteem and aesthetics.
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Patient participation in decision making concerning nursing needs is an important aspect of high quality care, of interest for both planning and implementing care. However, patients' perspective on participation in clinical decision making has not been studied extensively and the literature is inconclusive of what roles patients prefer to adopt. The aim was to investigate associations between patient demographics and preferences for participation in clinical decision making and to compare patients and RNs perceptions of the patients' preferences for participation. ⋯ The findings showed that younger and more educated patients preferred to be more active in some aspects of decision making than older and less educated patients did. Further, in comparison with RNs inference of patient preferences for participation, patients preferred to be more passive in decision making in relation to nursing needs in general, as well as for physical and psychosocial needs. Differences in perceptions between patients and RNs concerning patient participation could hamper high quality care and need to be addressed.